Fabrication and characterization of exfoliated chitosan–gelatin–montmorillonite nanocomposite nanofibers

Abstract

Polymeric nanofibers as one of the most known nanotechnology products have huge potential applications in many fields due to their high aspect ratio and porosity, being capable of formation of three-dimensional structures and having great mechanical and biological properties. Chitosan is a natural abundant polymer which has attracted huge interests in biomedical and biological industries due to its biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-toxicity properties. However, electrospinning of chitosan is found to be a great challenge, blending it with other polymers such as gelatin was explored as means to improve the morphological deficiencies of chitosan nanofibers and facilitate its electrospinnability. On the other hand, montmorillonite (MMT) has been attracted great attention due to its remarkable improvement in properties of polymeric composites nanofibers. The main objective of this work was on effect of concretion of gelatin–chitosan blends and MMT on morphology of resulted nanocomposite nanofibers. The x-ray diffraction data demonstrated the exfoliation of MMT layers. The morphology of electrospun chiosan–gelatin–MMT composite nanofibers was characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The miscibility of blend was determined using SEM and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer/attenuated total reflectance.